Systems and methods to pre-scale media content to facilitate audience measurement

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus for pre-scaling media content to facilitate audience measurement are disclosed. An example method includes encoding a media content sample in accordance with a first encoding configuration and playing the encoded sample. The example method also includes attempting to detect the codes in the sample, and computing a ratio between the codes encoded in the sample and the codes detected when the sample is played.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 60/882,695, filed Dec. 29, 2006, which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to audience measurement, and,more particularly, to systems and methods to pre-scale media content tofacilitate audience measurement.

BACKGROUND

Consuming media presentations (e.g., audio and/or video presentations)generally involves listening to audio information and/or viewing videoinformation. Media presentations may include, for example, radioprograms, music, television programs, radio or television commercials,movies, still images, etc. Media-centric companies such as, for example,advertising companies, broadcast networks, media researchers, etc. areoften interested in the viewing and/or listening interests of audiencemembers to better market their products and/or to improve theirprogramming. Prior to investigating and/or otherwise studying viewingand/or listening habits, media researchers first need todetermine/identify which media content was viewed.

Automatically determining the identity of which media content is beingplayed by a media device is typically determined with audiencemeasurement equipment, such as metering devices, tags, and/or portablepersonal meters. Such meters are typically configured to monitor mediaconsumption (e.g., viewing and/or listening activities) to determine anidentity of the media content being presented. For example, onetechnique of determining which media content is being presented to anaudience member involves detecting or collecting information, such asprogram and/or station identification codes embedded in audio and/orvideo signals that are tuned by media presentation devices (e.g.,televisions, stereos, speakers, set top boxes, computers, video displaydevices, video games, mobile telephones, etc.).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example system to pre-scale mediacontent to facilitate audience measurement.

FIG. 2 is a more detailed illustration of the media tester of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a portion of an example advertisement detection table of theexample system of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 4A through 4C are example scaling factors employed by the examplesystem of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of another example system to pre-scalemedia content to facilitate audience measurement.

FIG. 6 is a more detailed illustration of audience measurement equipmentof the example system of FIG. 5.

FIGS. 7-9 are flow diagrams representative of example machine readableinstructions which may be executed to implement the example systems ofFIGS. 1 and/or 5.

FIG. 10 is a schematic illustration of an example processor system thatmay execute the machine readable instructions of FIGS. 7-9 to implementthe example systems of FIGS. 1 and/or 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Although a particular segment of media content may be played at ahousehold in the presence of a metering device, the metering device maynot detect one or more of the codes embedded therein. Any number offactors may influence the detectability of an embedded code such as, forexample, ambient noise conditions or the type of media content in whichthe code is embedded. As such, the actual number of times codes arecarried by media content presented may not equal the number of times themetering device(s) detect such codes.

Referring now to FIG. 1, an example system 100 to pre-scale mediacontent is shown. More specifically, in order to determine whether amonitored audience member (e.g., a person in a monitored householdand/or a person carrying a personal/portable people meter equipped tocollect watermarks (e.g., embedded audio codes)), audience measurementcompanies, content providers, media researchers, and/or broadcastersembed audio codes within the media content (e.g., one or more programs(television and/or radio), advertisement(s) (e.g., commercials), etc.)to be monitored. The codes are embedded such that they are spaced(though not necessarily equally) in time throughout the program and/oradvertisement. The audience measurement company collects the codesdetected. The codes are compared to a database of codes to identify thecontent with which they are associated. Further, the number of collectedcodes associated with particular content are counted (i.e., summed) todetermine if the audience member was sufficiently exposed to the programto consider the corresponding program and/or advertisement as havingbeen consumed. However, not all programs and/or advertisements have thesame characteristics. As a result, some programs and/or advertisementstraditionally carry greater numbers of codes than others, thereby makingit more likely to credit consumption of some programs and/oradvertisements (e.g., those with more codes) than other programs and/oradvertisements. The example system 100 addresses this issue bypre-scaling the programs and/or advertisements to equalize thelikelihood of detecting the differing programs and/or advertisements.

The example system 100 of FIG. 1 includes a central office 105, whichincludes a central office media library 110, a media tester 115, afactored media library 120, a media scaler 125, and a revised mediadetection data store 130. The example system 100 of FIG. 1 also includesa broadcast media library 135, and a broadcaster 140 that transmitsmedia content to households 145 via one or more transmission routes 150.The transmission routes 150 may include, but are not limited to, radiofrequency (RF) transmission, Internet transmission, wireless (e.g.,cellular) transmission, cable transmission, and/or satellitetransmission. The central office (CO) 105 media library 110 stores oneor more types of media programming provided by an entity (e.g., abroadcaster, a marketing entity, a manufacturer, a merchant, etc.)interested in audience behavior information. Such audience behaviorinformation may include viewer identity, demographics, tuned broadcastprogramming channels, tuned movies, tuned advertisements, ambientconditions of the audience, audio/visual (A/V) channel and/or volumechanges, to name a few.

Generally speaking, the marketing entity, broadcaster, and/or otherentity interested in advertisement effectiveness and/or interested indetermining media content exposure looks to an audience measurementcompany to capture and provide such information. The audiencemeasurement company employs audience measurement equipment to determinewhether media content is exposed to and/or consumed by audience membersin monitored households (the households are typically statisticallyselected to represent one or more population segments of interest). Forexample, media content (e.g., television programs, advertisements, etc.)that draws a large audience may demand higher payments for advertisingtime than media content that has a smaller audience. Similarly,advertisement effectiveness (reach) may be determined, in part, bydetermining how many times the advertisement is presented in a householdas detected by audience measurement equipment.

Advertisement detection is facilitated by inserting codes within theaudio and/or video portions of an A/V signal corresponding to theadvertisement. The broadcast provider, marketing entity, and/or audiencemeasurement company may insert such codes (encode) within the mediacontent in a manner that is not detectable to an audience member. Forexample, the broadcast provider may insert audio codes within one ormore portions of the media program and/or advertisement during momentswhere they will be masked from human hearing by the sound of theprogram. It is generally more difficult to embed such audio codes duringcertain types of programming. For instance, it is difficult to embedaudio codes during periods of silence or in monotonic-type sounds,because such audio codes will more likely be heard during such periods.Example methods for adding codes to an audio signal are described inU.S. Pat. No. 6,272,176, entitled “Broadcast Encoding System andMethod,” filed on Jul. 16, 1998; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,968,564, entitled“Multi-Band Spectral Audio Encoding,” and filed on Apr. 6, 2000. U.S.Pat. Nos. 6,272,176 and 6,968,564 are each hereby incorporated byreference in their entirety.

Audience measurement equipment at monitored locations attempts to senseand/or decode the embedded codes presented via a tuned program and/oradvertisement. The codes are typically unique and contain and/orreference identification information to identify the program and/oradvertisement in which they are embedded. Some codes may identifyrelated program and/or advertisement versions if the broadcasterdevelops multiple programs and/or advertisements (e.g., advertisementsspecific to one or more geographic and/or demographic groups).Additionally, multiple layers of codes may be embedded within mediacontent and/or advertisements such as, for example, codes embedded bynational broadcasters, codes embedded by local broadcasting affiliates,and/or codes embedded by the content provider. As a result,opportunities to embed codes within the media content may be limited bythese competing codes, and/or by the content of the program and/oradvertisement (e.g., by times of relative quietness). This problem oflimited opportunities to embed codes in an undetectable manner isparticularly great in the context of advertisements becauseadvertisements are typically shorter in duration. Some advertisementsare as short as five seconds in duration.

Successfully detecting audio codes embedded in advertisements depends onseveral factors, including, but not limited to, the audiocharacteristics of the advertisement content and/or the audiocharacteristics of the ambient environment in which the advertisement ispresented. For example, advertisements having periods of relativesilence typically have fewer embedded codes to ensure that audiencemembers do not hear the codes. Additionally or alternatively,advertisements having monotone characteristics are also difficult toimperceptibly encode because the inserted codes may stand out againstthe monotone background. Thus, advertisements with monotonecharacteristics also contain relatively fewer codes than advertisementsof similar duration, but having louder or more varied audio tracks. As aresult, the audio codes embedded in some advertisements presented by A/Vequipment (e.g., a television, a radio, etc.) in an audience member'shousehold may not be detected because of ambient noise conditions,monotone characteristics of the advertisement, silence characteristicsof the advertisement, the audio spectral capabilities of the A/Vequipment, and/or a high density of code layers embedded within theadvertisement.

In the illustrated example, the marketing entity, broadcaster, and/orother entity interested in determining advertisement effectivenessprovides media content (e.g., one or more advertisements, portions ofadvertisements, portions of movies, portions of sitcoms, etc.) to the CO105 for testing to determine the media content's code maskingcapabilities. The code masking capabilities may be represented by way ofa scaling factor and/or a ratio of embedded versus detected codes toestablish a detectability factor. In operation, the advertisement and/orother media content is provided to the media tester 115 to determine themasking capabilities and/or the detection capabilities of theadvertisement, and assign that advertisement a scaling factor based onthat determined detectability. As discussed in further detail below, themedia tester 115 plays/transmits the advertisement in/to a controlledenvironment to determine the difficulty of detecting audio codesembedded therein. For instance, the media tester 115 transmits theadvertisement a number of times and attempts to detect and count theaudio codes embedded therein. Based upon the number of times the code(s)of the advertisement were emitted by the A/V equipment (e.g., atelevision), which is known in advance from the encoding entity, versusthe number of times the code(s) were actually detected by the audiencemeasurement equipment/device(s), the media tester 115 calculates andassigns a scaling factor to the advertisement. The scaling factor is avalue that indicates, adjusts, and/or scales a number of codes that mustbe detected during presentation of an advertisement by an audiencemeasurement device to consider the advertisement as having beendetected. Advertisements with relatively poor audio masking capabilitieswill have relatively fewer audio codes and, thus, can be counted aspresented when a lower number of codes are detected than advertisementshaving relatively higher audio masking capabilities. The scaling factorassigned to the advertisements is indicative of these and/or othercharacteristics and, thus, enable the audience measurement entity tomore accurately count the presence of the advertisements.

In the illustrated example, the media content are saved with thecorresponding scaling factor(s) in the factored media library 120 (e.g.,database, a scaling factor library), for later recall and application ofthe scaling factor(s) to actual measurement data collected from one ormore measurement sites 145 (e.g., households and/or portable meters(e.g., personal-people meters, cell-phone based meters, etc.). Forexample, the broadcaster 140, such as a local affiliate, retrieves anadvertisement from the broadcaster media library 135. In the illustratedexample, the particular advertisement selected by the broadcaster is oneof the advertisements previously tested by the CO 105.

Additionally or alternatively, the media tester 115 may suggest encodingconfiguration(s) and/or forward one or more preferred versions of theencoded advertisement to the example broadcaster media library 135. Forexample, the media tester 115 may perform multiple tests on a particularmedia sample (e.g., the advertisement) in which each test encodes themedia sample with a different encoding configuration. As described infurther detail below, an encoding configuration may include one or morecharacteristics that affect a likelihood or ability of embedded codesbeing detected by detection equipment. Characteristics include, but arenot limited to, a media sample playback volume, a media sample encodingvolume, an ambient noise volume, and a media sample encoding density(e.g., the number of separate codes embedded within the media sample).To that end, the media sample may have more than one associated scalingfactor (e.g., one for each encoding configuration). After the mediasample is tested under one or more of the aforementioned permutations ofcharacteristics, the media tester 115 may select a preferred encodingconfiguration and send the associated encoded media sample (or anidentification of the preferred encoding configuration if encoding is tobe done elsewhere) to the broadcaster media library 135 to be used forbroadcasting.

The audience measurement equipment in the field (e.g., at the examplehousehold 145) records and time stamps detected codes. The collecteddata is returned to the CO 105. Detection counts (e.g., the number ofcodes detected for a given interval of time during a given period ofmedia content) are then calculated and forwarded to the media scaler125. The media scaler 125 parses advertisement identificationinformation received from the field (e.g., the household 145) andqueries the factored media library 120 to receive the scaling factor(s)corresponding to the detected code(s). In the illustrated example, themedia scaler 125 applies a received scaling factor to the detectioncount (e.g., the number of codes counted) of an advertisement detectedin the field (e.g., the household 145) and saves the result as a reviseddetection count to the media detection data store 130. The reviseddetection count is then compared to a threshold to determine whether tocredit the advertisement as having been presented and/or consumed.

FIG. 2 illustrates the example media tester 115 of FIG. 1 in greaterdetail. The example media tester 115 calculates scaling factors of mediacontent. In the illustrated example, the media tester 115 provides acontrolled environment in which A/V equipment may present the mediacontent to example audience detection equipment. The example mediatester 115 includes an encoder 205 to embed one or more codes in themedia content received from the CO media library 110 (of course, theencoder 205 may be eliminated if the content is pre-coded). The encodedmedia content is then provided to a media device 210, such as atelevision and/or a radio, which plays and/or transmits the mediacontent in the controlled environment of the media tester 115. Adetector and/or audience measurement equipment 215 receives the mediacontent played/transmitted by the media device 210 and attempts toextract codes (e.g., audio codes) therefrom. Any extracted codes areprovided to a correlator 220, which stores the code(s) and/or the numberof codes detected by the audience measurement equipment 215. In theillustrated example, the correlator 220 also stores the number of codesactually transmitted to the media device 210 by the encoder 205, therebyallowing the correlator 220 to determine a ratio between the number oftransmitted codes and the number of detected codes. This ratio betweenthe total number of codes inserted and the number of codes detectedduring the duration of the program is used to assign a scaling factor tothe media content. Although in the illustrated example the scalingfactor is a ratio, it may be represented in any other desired fashion(e.g., as a difference, etc.).

As described above, more than one scaling factor may be associated witha particular piece of media content such as an advertisement. Forexample, a first scaling factor associated with media content (e.g., anadvertisement) may be based on the number of embedded codes therein.Generally speaking, a higher scaling factor may be applied to anadvertisement having many layers of embedded codes because suchmultilayered codes impose a greater challenge for the audiencemeasurement equipment to detect. For example, an advertisement presentedin a first geographic market may include a program identification codeand a code embedded by a national broadcaster (e.g., NBC, CBS, etc.). Onthe other hand, that same advertisement presented in a second geographicmarket may include an additional code embedded by a local broadcaster,thereby increasing a code density of the advertisement. Based on whichgeographic market the advertisement is presented, a corresponding firstor second scaling factor may be applied to the advertisement.

Additionally or alternatively, a second scaling factor may be associatedwith the advertisement based on the volume of the audience member'smedia device 210. Unlike the factor of the number of embedded codes inan advertisement, the volume of the audience member's media device 210(e.g., television) is not directly based on the advertisement contentitself. Nonetheless, this factor plays a part in the ability of audiencemeasurement equipment to detect audio codes embedded therein. Forexample, media content that is presented at a higher volume may have abetter chance of being detected by the audience measurement equipment215, thereby resulting in a lower scaling factor. On the other hand,media content that is presented at a lower volume presents a greaterchallenge to the audience measurement equipment 215, thereby resultingin a higher scaling factor. Information relating to volume settingsand/or changes (e.g., household environmental conditions) may bedetected by the audience measurement equipment 215 at the monitoredsite. In the event that the audience measurement equipment 215 candetermine that the advertisement is being presented at a particularvolume level (e.g., a microphone to detect/measure a volume power levelin dBm), then a corresponding scaling factor may be selected based onthe measured advertisement presentation volume level and applied whenmaking crediting determinations.

A third example scaling factor may be associated with the advertisementbased on the ambient noise conditions of the audience member'shousehold. For example, households having loud background noises, dogsbarking, party activities, and/or other ambient acoustic noiseconditions, present greater detection challenges for the audiencemeasurement equipment 215. As such, a third example scaling factor maybe calculated and applied for use when facing such detection challenges.As with the second scaling factor, the third scaling factor is afunction of the monitored site, not a function of the advertisementper-se, and is, thus, based on conditions detected at play back at themonitored site. In operation, the advertisement may be associated withany number of scaling factors, each scaling factor associated with acorresponding background noise level (e.g., a noise level measured by amicrophone in dBm) detected by the audience measurement equipment 215.Any number of characteristics and/or parameters may play a significantpart in the ability of audience measurement equipment 215 to detectaudio codes embedded within media content. Furthermore, a relativelylarge number of permutations of one or more characteristics may resultin a large number of potential scaling factors, depending on both theadvertisement content itself, the encoding configuration employed,and/or the environment in which the advertisement is presented.

To simulate one or more characteristics/parameters that may have aneffect on advertisement code detection, the example media tester 115includes a layer controller 225, a volume controller 230, and an ambientnoise generator 235 operatively connected to a speaker 240. In theillustrated example, the correlator 220 controls one or more aspects ofthe encoder 205, the layer controller 225, the volume controller 230,and/or the ambient noise generator 235 to establish one or moreconditions that permit a scaling factor to be computed. For example, thecorrelator 220 may instruct the layer controller 225 to identify asingle code to be embedded into the media content via the encoder 205.One or more codes may be provided by a broadcaster so that the mediatester 115 may encode the advertisement with such code(s) in a number ofdifferent configurations. As a result, the example media tester 115 canrun through any number of encoding configuration permutations anddetermine a preferred configuration based on empirical results of thehighest transmitted-to-detected code ratio. In operation, the correlator220 runs through a number of iterations, such as, for example, tenattempts of presenting an advertisement with a single type (e.g., onelayer) of embedded code (e.g., the code provided by the broadcaster).The correlator 220 maintains a list of the number of transmitted codesby monitoring encoding activity of the encoder 205 (via a data line245), and maintains a list of the number of detected codes by monitoringthe audience measurement equipment 215. If the ratio of detected codesto transmitted codes is relatively high (e.g., 9 out of 10 codesdetected), then the correlator 220 stores a scaling factor (based onthis measured ratio), which may be applied to the advertisement whenonly a single code is embedded therein, as described in further detailbelow. The particular techniques and/or mathematics used to calculatethe scaling factor may be designed by a user of the media tester 115 andstored in a memory associated with the correlator 220.

In another example, the correlator 220 instructs the layer controller225 to embed two different types (or layers) of codes into the mediacontent via the encoder 205. For example, the two codes may include onecode associated with the program identifier, and another code associatedwith a national broadcaster (e.g., a code indicative of NBC, CBS, etc.)In operation, the correlator 220 may run through, for example, tenattempts of presenting an advertisement with the two embedded codes andmaintain a list of transmitted codes and detected codes. If the ratio ofdetected codes to transmitted codes is somewhat lower than the examplein which only a single code is embedded into the advertisement, then acorresponding lower scaling factor may be associated to theadvertisement. Therefore, in this example, the same advertisement has atleast two associated scaling factors, one of which is used when theadvertisement contains a single layer of embedded code(s), and anotherscaling factor used when the advertisement contains two (or more) layersof embedded codes. Typically the broadcaster will know that theadvertisement should have a certain number of codes embedded thereinbased on the presentation location (e.g., geographic location ofpresentation). A first geographic location may be scheduled to broadcastthe advertisement with a single type of code (e.g., a National codespaced throughout the advertisement every six seconds), while a secondgeographic location may be scheduled to broadcast the advertisement withboth a national code and a local affiliate code. Based on the localityof where the advertisement is presented, a corresponding scaling factoris associated with the advertisement so that a corrected detection countmay be calculated. Any number of scaling factors may be tested-for, andassociated-with an advertisement based on one or more permutations ofcode layers, volume levels, ambient noise conditions, and/or othercharacteristics that may affect code detection. For example, differentscaling factors may be calculated for the advertisements based on thetype of audience measurement equipment 215 that is operating in anyparticular household 145.

In yet another example, the correlator 220 instructs the volumecontroller 230 to embed the codes identified by the layer controller 225at at least one predetermined encoding volume level. For example, byvirtue of the volume controller 230 setting a particular encoding volume(e.g., a volume level measured in decibels, a volume level measured indBm, etc.), corresponding media content scaling factors may becalculated by the media tester 115. Generally speaking, higher encodingvolumes correspond to better detectability by the audience measurementequipment 215. Additionally or alternatively, the example volumecontroller 230 establishes at least one volume level of the ambientnoise generator 235, thereby allowing the media tester 115 to determinecorresponding scaling factors when ambient noise is included in thetesting environment.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example table 300 of advertisement detectionresults generated by the example correlator 220. The example table 300includes an advertisement identification column 305 to identify whichadvertisement was measured, a characteristic column 310 to describewhich characteristic of the advertisement was measured, a characteristicvalue 315, a codes transmitted column 320, a codes detected column 325,and a scaling factor column 330. In the illustrated example table 300, afirst row 335 illustrates that a first advertisement (i.e., Ad ID #1)340 was measured in view of the number of types of embedded codes 345(e.g., an encoding density). The characteristic value column 315illustrates that a single type of code was embedded (e.g., a programidentification code that is spaced once every six seconds throughout theadvertisement), and the advertisement was transmitted ten times, asillustrated by the codes transmitted column 320. If each advertisementis twenty seconds in duration, then three codes should be detected eachtime the advertisement is presented. Accordingly,presentation/transmission of the advertisement ten times includes thirtyopportunities for the audience measurement equipment 215 to detect thecodes.

As shown in the illustrated example of FIG. 3, of the thirty codestransmitted, the codes detected column 325 illustrates that twenty-sevenwere received, resulting in a ratio of 0.9. Similarly, rows 350 and 355illustrate results when two types of codes (e.g., a programidentification code and a national broadcaster code, each presented onceevery ten seconds) and three types of codes (e.g., a programidentification code, a national broadcaster code, and a local affiliatecode, each presented once every ten seconds) are embedded into theadvertisement, respectively. Thus, for the same example twenty-secondadvertisement, row 350 illustrates that four codes should, ideally, bedetected each time the advertisement is presented, for a grand total of40 codes (column 320) in the event the advertisement is iterated tentimes during the test. Similarly, for the same example twenty-secondadvertisement in which three codes are embedded for each ten second timeperiod (row 355), a total of six codes should, ideally, be detected eachtime the advertisement is presented. This results in a grand total of 60codes (column 320) in the event that the advertisement is iterated tentimes during the test. Generally speaking, the example table 300 of FIG.3 illustrates that each advertisement may exhibit substantiallydifferent detectability results. In particular, advertisement numberfour (column 305) illustrates a relatively lower detection ratio (column330) than advertisement number one.

The example table 300 also illustrates detection results for othercharacteristics, such as for one or more volume levels 360 and for oneor more ambient noise conditions 365. As described above,characteristics relating to the volume level of the presented mediacontent and/or the ambient noise in which the media content is presentedare not inherently related to the media content itself. However, theexample media tester 115 allows the user to run through one or morepermutations (e.g., of the volume level and/or ambient noise conditions)to establish corresponding scaling factors. As discussed in furtherdetail below, such scaling factors may be applied to the detected mediacontent after, for example, the audience measurement equipmentdetermines the parameters of the ambient conditions (e.g., the audiencemember's television volume level in decibels and/or the audiencemember's ambient noise level in decibels).

FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C illustrate example scaling factor calculations.While the example scaling factor calculations may be based on the dataacquired by the correlator 220 as shown in the example table 300 of FIG.3, the example values shown in FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C are unrelated to theexample data shown in FIG. 3. Instead, the example values shown in FIG.4A illustrate the upper and lower extreme detection capabilities for oneor more advertisements. FIG. 4A illustrates an example six-way categoryof average detection rates 400 ranging from category “A”, for thehighest average detection rates (i.e., advertisements in which theembedded codes were most successfully detected), to category “F” for thelowest average detection rates. In particular, category “A” illustratesthat, of all advertisements actually presented to households, thedetection rate was no greater than 91%. Similarly, category “F”illustrates that, of all advertisements actually presented tohouseholds, the detection rate was no less than 60%. However, more orfewer categories may be employed, as needed. In the illustrated example,scaling factors are calculated based on this empirical range ofdetection capabilities. Scaling factors 405 of FIG. 4B are normalized tocategory “A,” and are based on dividing the most successful category(i.e., category “A” having an average detection rate of 0.91) by eachindividual category. As such, the scaling factor for category “F” wasbased on dividing 0.91 by 0.60, the scaling factor for category “E” wasbased on dividing 0.91 by 0.70, the scaling factor for category “D” wasbased on dividing 0.91 by 0.80, the scaling factor for category “C” wasbased on dividing 0.91 by 0.85, the scaling factor for category “B” wasbased on dividing 0.91 by 0.87, and the scaling factor for category “A”was based on dividing 0.91 by 0.91.

Without limitation, the scaling factors may be calculated withadditional and/or alternate mathematical approaches. For example,scaling factors 410 of FIG. 4C are normalized to 100%, and are based ondividing 1.00 by each corresponding category average. As such, thescaling factor for category “A” was based on dividing 1.00 by 0.91, thescaling factor for category “B” was based on dividing 1.00 by 0.87, thescaling factor for category “C” was based on dividing 1.00 by 0.85, thescaling factor for category “D” was based on dividing 1.00 by 0.80, thescaling factor for category “E” was based on dividing 1.00 by 0.70, andthe scaling factor “F” was based on dividing 1.00 by 0.60. Uponcompletion of calculating scaling factors, the correlator 220 forwardsthe scaling factors to the factored media library 120 so that suchfactors may be applied to audience data received by the households 145.

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternate example system 500 to pre-scale mediacontent. The system 500 of FIG. 5 includes components that are similarto those illustrated in FIG. 1, and are provided with similaridentification numbers having a “500” series nomenclature. Generallyspeaking, rather than the CO employing redundant libraries and/orservers to receive detected advertisement identifiers and query thelibrary for one or more scaling factors, the example system 500 of FIG.5 embeds one or more scaling factors within the media content asmetadata. In operation, an advertisement from a broadcast media library535 is provided to a media tester 515 of a central office (CO) 505 todetermine detection capabilities of the advertisement and apply one ormore scaling factors thereto. As described above in view of FIGS. 1 and2, the media tester 115 employs a correlator 220 to calculate thescaling factors, a description of which will not be repeated. However,unlike the example system 100 of FIG. 1, in which the scaling factorsare provided to a factored media library 120 owned, managed, and/oroperated by the CO 105, the example system 500 of FIG. 5 returns thescaling factors to the broadcast media library 535. Such scaling factorsare associated with the tested advertisement and stored for future useduring broadcasting. As a result, the CO 505 is not burdened withstorage tasks and/or query tasks that typically require databaseservers, such as structured query language (SQL) servers.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 5, the broadcaster 540 retrieves oneor more advertisements from the broadcast media library 535, in whichsuch advertisements include associated scaling factor information. Asdescribed above, the associated scaling factor information may bespecific to, and used for, specific presentation scenarios. For example,some of the scaling factors may only be used when the advertisement isbroadcast to the households when there is a single code embeddedtherein. Alternatively, a separate scaling factor may be used when thebroadcast advertisement includes two or more codes embedded therein. Asdescribed above, the appropriate scaling factor may be selected based onwhich geographic region presents the advertisement having a singleembedded code (e.g., a single code (e.g., program identification code)repeating every six seconds in the advertisement) versus whichgeographic region presents the advertisement having more than oneembedded code (e.g., an advertisement having one program identificationcode and one national broadcaster identification code repeating in anon-overlapping manner). Before the broadcaster transmits theadvertisement to one or more households, a metadata inserter 560 embedsone or more scaling factors in the advertisement as metadata. Themetadata inserter 560 returns the advertisement media to the broadcaster540 for transmission to one or more households 545A and/or 545B.

In the illustrated example, the household 545A is in a first geographicregion, and the household 545B is in a second geographic region. Each ofthe audience member households includes audience measurement equipment565 to, among other things, acquire data indicative of audiencebehavior. As described above, audience behavior of interest to marketingentities and/or broadcasters may include, but is not limited to,broadcast programs watched, movies watched, commercials watched, videogames played, audience viewing habits based on the time of day, and/oraudience member remote control usage (e.g., volume up/down, channelup/down, etc.). The audience measurement equipment 565 of the households545A and 545B also detect one or more codes embedded within thebroadcast advertisement(s) and may forward an indication of suchdetected advertisements (and/or number of codes counted in theadvertisements) to the CO 505.

FIG. 6 illustrates additional detail of the example audience measurementequipment 565 that may be operating in the households 545A and 545B. Inthe illustrated example, the audience measurement equipment 565 includesa content logger 605, a metadata parser 610, and a communicationinterface 615. The example content logger 605 monitors A/V signalsoriginating from the broadcaster 540 (e.g., radio frequency (RF) tuners,cable set-top boxes, satellite receivers, etc.) and/or from digitalversatile disk (DVD) players, digital video recorders (DVRs), videocassette recorders (VCRs), and/or other types of A/V equipment. Thecontent logger 605 may perform one or more audience measurement loggingactivities not relevant to this disclosure, and will not be discussedfurther herein. However, the metadata parser 610 monitors for media,such as advertisements, that have metadata embedded therein. Upondetecting, for example, an advertisement having metadata, the metadataparser 610 extracts the metadata and any scaling factor(s) that wereinserted into the advertisement by the metadata inserter 560. Theextracted scaling factor(s) are provided to the communication interface615 and forwarded to the media scaler 525 of the CO 505. Withoutlimitation, the metadata parser 610 may batch a predetermined amount ofcollected information before sending it to the CO 505. For example, themetadata parser 610 may collect scaling factors during a twelve hourperiod before forwarding the number of detected codes and associatedscaling factors to the communication interface 615.

Returning to FIG. 5, the example media scaler 525 receives the detectedcodes and associated scaling factor(s), and performs a calculation onthe detected codes using the provided scaling factor(s). As such, the CO505 does not need to employ additional database servers or query alibrary of advertisements to find the associated scaling factor(s). Thecalculated detection rates are stored in the media detection data store530.

In the event that the broadcaster 540 knows particular characteristicsof the destination households 545A and 545B, the metadata inserter 560may selectively choose which scaling factors to embed into theadvertisement before broadcasting. For example, if the broadcaster 540knows that households in the first geographic region 545A only have asingle code embedded therein (e.g., a low encoding density valuecontaining only a program identification code), then the metadatainserter 560 will insert only such scaling factors that are associatedwith that advertisement when broadcasting a single embedded code. As aresult, rather than sending all known scaling factors as metadata, thebandwidth limitations for inserting metadata are more efficientlyutilized by selectively placing only such scaling factors that areneeded into the metadata. Additionally, in the event that thebroadcaster 540 knows that households in the second geographic region545B have three codes embedded in the advertisement (e.g., a relativelyhigher encoding density value), then the metadata inserter 560 can embedonly such associated scaling factors before the broadcaster 540 sendsthe media to the households in the second geographic region 545B.

Even in the event that multiple scaling factors are embedded into themetadata of the advertisement by the metadata inserter 560, the audiencemeasurement equipment 565 may selectively parse and extract only suchscaling functions that are needed in view of household conditions. Inthe illustrated example audience measurement equipment 565 of FIG. 6,the metadata parser 610 extracts all of the received scaling functions,and compares the scaling functions against measured data collected bythe content logger 605. For example, if the content logger 605 includescollected data indicating that the audience member has the televisionset to a volume level of 35 dB, then the metadata parser 610 retainsonly the scaling factor(s) associated with that volume level. In anotherexample, if the metadata parser 610 identifies one or more scalingfactors, each one to be used in a specific geographic location, then themetadata parser 610 may retain only such scaling factor associated withthe location in which the audience measurement equipment 565 is located.As a result, only such scaling factor(s) that are needed are forwardedfrom the metadata parser 610 (via the communication interface 615) tothe advertising scaler 525 of the CO 505.

Flowcharts representative of example machine readable instructions forimplementing any of the example systems of FIGS. 1-6 to wirelessly meteran A/V device are shown in FIGS. 7-9. In this example, the machinereadable instructions comprise a program for execution by: (a) aprocessor such as the processor 1012 shown in the example computer 1000discussed below in connection with FIG. 10, (b) a controller, and/or (c)any other suitable processing device. The program may be embodied insoftware stored on a tangible medium such as, for example, a flashmemory, a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, a digital versatile disk(DVD), or a memory associated with the processor 1012, but the entireprogram and/or parts thereof could alternatively be executed by a deviceother than the processor 1012 and/or embodied in firmware or dedicatedhardware (e.g., it may be implemented by an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), a fieldprogrammable logic device (FPLD), discrete logic, etc.). Also, some orall of the machine readable instructions represented by the flowchartsof FIG. 7-9 may be implemented manually. Further, although the exampleprogram is described with reference to the flowcharts illustrated inFIGS. 7-9, many other methods of implementing the example machinereadable instructions may alternatively be used. For example, the orderof execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or some of the blocksdescribed may be changed, substituted, eliminated, or combined.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart representative of machine readable instructions700 that may be executed to determine media content detectability. Theprocess 700 of FIG. 7 begins at block 702 where the CO 105, 505retrieves media content. The CO 105, 505 may query the CO media library110, query the broadcast media library 535, and/or receive media contentsent by the broadcast media library 135, 535 (block 702). In the eventthat the CO 105, 505 queries the library, the CO 105, 505 selects mediacontent from the broadcast media library 110, 135, 535 that has not yetbeen analyzed for detection effectiveness (block 704). However, if theCO 105, 505 receives the media content rather than retrieves it, block704 may be eliminated.

In the illustrated example flowchart 700, media content received by theCO 105, 505 is further received by the media tester 115, 515 and encoded(block 706) with one or more codes provided by the broadcaster 140, 540.The media tester 115, 515 tests the media (block 708), such as, forexample, an advertisement, to determine appropriate scaling factorsbased on detection capabilities of the advertisement under one or moreconditions. As discussed in further detail below, the testedadvertisements (block 708) are associated with one or more scalingfactors before providing the broadcaster 140, 540 with the advertisementand broadcasting it to one or more households (block 710). Because eachhousehold contains audience measurement equipment, such as the audiencemeasurement equipment 565 shown in FIG. 6, the number of detected codesis logged (block 712) and returned to the CO 105, 505 for scalingadjustment(s) (block 714).

In the event that the broadcaster 140, 540 has no interest in having theexample media tester 115, 515 encode one or more codes in theadvertisement, block 706 may be skipped (dashed line 707). In someinstances, the broadcaster 140, 540 may prefer to employ different,unique, complex, and/or proprietary encoding techniques to the mediacontent without any third party involvement. Nonetheless, the mediatester 115, 515 may still test such a pre-encoded advertisement that isprovided by the broadcaster 140, 540 to determine one or more scalingfactor(s). For example, the broadcaster 140, 540 may provide the mediatester 115, 515 a pre-encoded advertisement, but disclose the number ofembedded codes and/or timestamp(s) associated with the embedded codes.As such, the media tester 115, 515 may perform one or more iterativetests on the advertisement to determine a ratio of transmitted codes todetected codes, and calculate one or more scaling factors associatedwith one or more permutations of ambient conditions (e.g., a householdaudience volume level, a playback volume level, a particular brand/modelnumber of audience detection equipment 565, etc.).

FIG. 8 illustrates additional detail of the media content testing (block708) described above. In the illustrated example, the media tester 115selects and/or receives the encoded content (block 802) from thebroadcaster and presents the content (e.g., the advertisement with anembedded code) on a media device, such as a television (block 804).However, before calculating one or more detection ratios, the correlator220 configures the layer controller 225 to encode a predetermined numberof layers of codes in the media content (block 806). However, asdescribed above, the broadcaster may prefer to forego one or moreencoding operations (dashed line 807) in favor of testing theadvertisement with the one or more embedded codes encoded by thebroadcaster. Additionally, the correlator 220 may configure a volumelevel of the media device 210 via the volume controller 230 (block 808),and configure ambient noise parameters (block 810) via the ambient noisegenerator 235. Additionally or alternatively, blocks 806 and 808 may beeliminated so that, for example, one or more tests can be performed onthe media content with respect to only the ambient parameters (block810). In either example situation, the correlator 220 records the numberof transmitted codes (block 812) and the number of detected codes (block814) to calculate a detection ratio for those particular conditions(block 816). However, as described above, if the broadcaster providesthe advertisement pre-encoded, the number of embedded codes is alsoprovided before testing begins to allow the correlator 220 to calculatethe detection ratio.

In the event that additional variations of parameters are needed and/ordesired to accommodate alternate conditions in which an advertisementmay be presented to audience measurement equipment (block 818), theexample process may return to block 806 to re-configure such parametersbefore calculating additional detection ratios. The detection ratios areused by the correlator 220 to calculate one or more scaling factors(block 820) in a manner described above in view of FIGS. 4A, 4B, and/or4C. Calculated scaling factors are stored in the factored media library120 of the CO 105, or stored on the broadcast media library 535 that isowned, operated, and/or managed by the broadcaster (block 820).

FIG. 9 illustrates additional detail of the application of scalingfactors (block 714) described above. In the illustrated example, if thescaling factors are not stored as metadata (block 902), the media scaler125 of the CO 105 receives content identification information from thesample households 145 (block 904). In the illustrated example, thecontent identification information includes an identifier to communicatewhich advertisement and/or other media content was detected by theaudience measurement equipment in the household(s) 145, such as aprogram identification code. The media scaler 125 queries the factoredmedia library 120 with the advertisement identifier (block 906) andreceives the associated scaling factor(s) associated with thatadvertisement (block 908). A corrected detection rate is calculated bythe example media scaler 125 using the scaling factors received by thefactored media library 120 (block 910) and saved to the media detectiondata store 130, which may be accessible by the broadcaster. Suchaccessibility of the corrected detection rate(s) may be transferred tothe broadcaster and/or marketing entity (block 912) and/or the marketingentity may have limited access to the media detection data store 130.

If the scaling factors are stored as metadata (block 902), then themedia scaler 525 receives the number of detected codes from thehousehold (block 914) along with the retained scaling factor from themetadata parser 610 (block 916), as described above. The media scaler525 calculates one or more corrected detection rate(s) (block 918) basedon the received detected number of codes and scaling factor. Thecorrected detection rate(s) may be transferred to the broadcaster and/ormarketing entity (block 912) and/or the marketing entity may havelimited access to the media detection data store 530.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an example processor system that may beused to execute the example machine readable instructions of FIGS. 7-9to implement the example systems and/or methods described herein. Asshown in FIG. 10, the processor system 1010 includes a processor 1012that is coupled to an interconnection bus 1014. The processor 1012includes a register set or register space 1016, which is depicted inFIG. 10 as being entirely on-chip, but which could alternatively belocated entirely or partially off-chip and directly coupled to theprocessor 1012 via dedicated electrical connections and/or via theinterconnection bus 1014. The processor 1012 may be any suitableprocessor, processing unit or microprocessor. Although not shown in FIG.10, the system 1010 may be a multi-processor system and, thus, mayinclude one or more additional processors that are identical or similarto the processor 1012 and that are communicatively coupled to theinterconnection bus 1014.

The processor 1012 of FIG. 10 is coupled to a chipset 1018, whichincludes a memory controller 1020 and an input/output (I/O) controller1022. As is well known, a chipset typically provides I/O and memorymanagement functions as well as a plurality of general purpose and/orspecial purpose registers, timers, etc. that are accessible or used byone or more processors coupled to the chipset 1018. The memorycontroller 1020 performs functions that enable the processor 1012 (orprocessors if there are multiple processors) to access a system memory1024 and a mass storage memory 1025.

The system memory 1024 may include any desired type of volatile and/ornon-volatile memory such as, for example, static random access memory(SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), flash memory, read-onlymemory (ROM), etc. The mass storage memory 1025 may include any desiredtype of mass storage device including hard disk drives, optical drives,tape storage devices, etc.

The I/O controller 1022 performs functions that enable the processor1012 to communicate with peripheral input/output (I/O) devices 1026 and1028 and a network interface 1030 via an I/O bus 1032. The I/O devices1026 and 1028 may be any desired type of I/O device such as, forexample, a keyboard, a video display or monitor, a mouse, etc. Thenetwork interface 1030 may be, for example, an Ethernet device, anasynchronous transfer mode (ATM) device, an 802.11 device, a digitalsubscriber line (DSL) modem, a cable modem, a cellular modem, etc. thatenables the processor system 1010 to communicate with another processorsystem.

While the memory controller 1020 and the I/O controller 1022 aredepicted in FIG. 10 as separate functional blocks within the chipset1018, the functions performed by these blocks may be integrated within asingle semiconductor circuit or may be implemented using two or moreseparate integrated circuits.

Although certain methods, apparatus, systems, and articles ofmanufacture have been described herein, the scope of coverage of thispatent is not limited thereto. To the contrary, this patent covers allmethods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture fairly fallingwithin the scope of the appended claims either literally or under thedoctrine of equivalents.

We claim:
 1. A method to encode media comprising: encoding, by executingan instruction with at least one processor, a media sample with anoriginal number of codes in accordance with a first encodingconfiguration to create an encoded media sample; recording, by executingan instruction with the at least one processor, the original number ofcodes; playing, by executing an instruction with the at least oneprocessor, the encoded media sample in a first controlled ambientenvironment provided by a media tester and having a first ambientconfiguration value; detecting, by executing an instruction with the atleast one processor, a detected number of codes extracted while theencoded media sample is played in the first controlled ambientenvironment; recording, by executing an instruction with the at leastone processor, the detected number of codes; generating, by executing aninstruction with the at least one processor, a scaling factor for themedia sample based on the first ambient configuration value and a ratioof (a) the original number of codes to (b) the detected number of codes;and determining, by executing an instruction with the at least oneprocessor, a threshold value based on the scaling factor, the thresholdvalue being for a portion of the original number of codes required to bedetected to establish detection of an advertisement associated with theencoded media sample when the encoded media sample is subsequentlyplayed via a device other than the media tester in an ambientenvironment having a characteristic corresponding to the first ambientconfiguration value.
 2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein theencoded media sample includes the advertisement.
 3. The method asdefined in claim 1, wherein the first encoding configuration includes atleast one of a first playback volume parameter, a first encoding volumeparameter, a first ambient noise volume parameter, or a first encodingdensity parameter.
 4. The method as defined in claim 1, furtherincluding: encoding, by executing an instruction with the at least oneprocessor, the media sample with the original number of codes inaccordance with a second encoding configuration different from the firstencoding configuration to create a second encoded media sample; playing,by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, the secondencoded media sample in the first controlled ambient environment;detecting, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor,a second detected number of codes extracted while the second encodedmedia sample is played in the first controlled ambient environment;recording, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor,the second detected number of codes; and generating, by executing aninstruction with the at least one processor, a second scaling factor forthe media sample based on the first ambient configuration value and aratio of (a) the original number of codes to (b) the second detectednumber of codes.
 5. The method as defined in claim 1, further includingassigning the media sample to a first detection category based on thescaling factor.
 6. The method as defined in claim 5, wherein the firstdetection category is assigned relative to a second detection categoryassociated with at least one of a higher or lower scaling factor thanthe first detection category.
 7. The method as defined in claim 1,further including associating the scaling factor with the media sampleand storing the scaling factor in a database.
 8. The method as definedin claim 1, further including embedding the ratio in the media sample asmetadata.
 9. The method as defined in claim 1, further includingincreasing a likelihood of detecting an instance of the original numberof codes by increasing an encoding volume parameter.
 10. An apparatus toencode media comprising: an encoder structured to encode a media samplewith an original number of codes to create an encoded media sample; amedia device structured to play the encoded media sample in a firstcontrolled ambient environment provided by a media tester and having afirst ambient configuration value; a detector structured to identify adetected number of codes extracted while the encoded media sample isplayed by the media device in the first controlled ambient environment;and a correlator structured to: record the original number of codes;record the detected number of codes; generate a scaling factor for themedia sample based on the first ambient configuration value and a ratioof (a) the original number of codes to (b) the detected number of codes;and determine a threshold value based on the scaling factor, thethreshold value being for a portion of the original number of codesrequired to be detected to establish detection of an advertisementassociated with the encoded media sample when the encoded media sampleis subsequently played via a device other than the media tester in anambient environment having a characteristic corresponding to the firstambient configuration value.
 11. The apparatus as defined in claim 10,wherein the detector includes at least one audience measurement device.12. The apparatus as defined in claim 10, further including a layercontroller structured to identify a code type for the encoder to embedin the media sample.
 13. The apparatus as defined in claim 10, furtherincluding a volume controller structured to establish an encoding volumefor the original number of codes encoded in the media sample.
 14. Theapparatus as defined in claim 10, further including an ambient noisegenerator structured to play ambient noise while the media device isplaying the encoded media sample.
 15. The apparatus as defined in claim14, further including a volume controller structured to establish avolume level for at least one of the media device or the ambient noisegenerator.
 16. An article of manufacture comprising computer readableinstructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform at leastthe operations of: encoding a media sample with an original number ofcodes in accordance with a first encoding configuration to create anencoded media sample; recording the original number of codes; playingthe encoded media sample in a first controlled ambient environmentprovided by a media tester and having a first ambient configurationvalue; detecting a detected number of codes extracted while the encodedmedia sample is played in the first controlled ambient environment;recording the detected number of codes; generating a scaling factor forthe media sample based on the first ambient configuration value and aratio of (a) the original number of codes to (b) the detected number ofcodes; and determining a threshold value based on the scaling factor,the threshold value being for a portion of the original number of codesrequired to be detected to establish detection of an advertisementassociated with the encoded media sample when the encoded media sampleis subsequently played via a device other than the media tester in anambient environment having a characteristic corresponding to the firstambient configuration value.
 17. The article of manufacture as definedin claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause theprocessor to perform the operations of: encoding the media sample withthe original number of codes in accordance with a second encodingconfiguration different from the first encoding configuration to createa second encoded media sample; playing the second encoded media samplein the first controlled ambient environment; detecting a second detectednumber of codes extracted while the second encoded media sample isplayed in the first controlled ambient environment; recording the seconddetected number of codes; and generating a second scaling factor for themedia sample based on the first ambient configuration value and a ratioof (a) the original number of codes to (b) the second detected number ofcodes.
 18. The article of manufacture as defined in claim 16, whereinthe instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to performthe operation of assigning the media sample to a first detectioncategory based on the scaling factor.
 19. The article of manufacture asdefined in claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed, furthercause the processor to perform the operation of assigning the firstdetection category relative to a second detection category, the seconddetection category associated with at least one of a higher or lowerscaling factor than the first detection category.
 20. The article ofmanufacture as defined in claim 16, wherein the instructions, whenexecuted, further cause the processor to perform the operations ofassociating the scaling factor with the media sample and storing thescaling factor in a database.
 21. The article of manufacture as definedin claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause theprocessor to perform the operation of embedding the ratio in the mediasample as metadata.
 22. The article of manufacture as defined in claim16, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processorto increase a likelihood of detecting an instance of the original numberof codes by performing the operation of increasing an encoding volumeparameter.
 23. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the firstambient configuration value includes an ambient volume level.
 24. Themethod as defined in claim 1, further including: playing, by executingan instruction with the at least one processor, the encoded media samplein a second controlled ambient environment provided by the media testerand having a second ambient configuration value different from the firstambient configuration value; detecting, by executing an instruction withthe at least one processor, a second detected number of codes extractedwhile the encoded media sample is played in the second controlledambient environment; and recording, by executing an instruction with theat least one processor, the second detected number of codes.
 25. Themethod as defined in claim 24, further including, generating, byexecuting an instruction with the at least one processor, a secondscaling factor for the media sample based on the second ambientconfiguration value and a ratio of (a) the original number of codes to(b) the second detected number of codes; and determining, by executingan instruction with the at least one processor, a second threshold valuebased on the second scaling factor, the second threshold value being fora portion of the original number of codes required to be detected toestablish detection of the advertisement when the encoded media sampleis subsequently played via a device other than the media tester in anambient environment having a characteristic corresponding to the secondambient configuration value.
 26. The method as defined in claim 1,wherein respective ones of the codes are audio watermarks.